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Biggles Flies East/plot
Chapter 1: How It Began While on leave and in civvies in London, Biggles is mistaken for one Captain Leopold Brunow by a talent-spotter and offered a job to work for German intelligence. Biggles reports this to British intelligence and General Pendersby asks him to play along, effectively becoming a double-agent. Chapter 2: Algy Gets a Shock Meanwhile, Algy, in France, gets sudden movement orders for the Middle-east. Cursing the stupidity of headquarters bureaucrats, Algy, who finds that Major Raymond has similar orders, arrives at Kantara in Palestine. There he is shock to meet Biggles. Biggles explains that he had followed General Pendersby's instructions and accepted Broglace's offer and had been recruited into the German intelligence service posing as the disgraced R.F.C. officer Brunow. He had been posted, at his request, to Palestine, where the war was going badly for the British. British intelligence wants him to try to identify the deadly German agent codenamed "El Shereef". Biggles had asked for Algy and Raymond to be his points of contact. He had flown out in a German-captured Sopwith Pup on a familiarisation flight and had taken the opportunity to meet up with them. After nominating a rendezvous at Abba Sub, Biggles departs. Outside, he spots an Arab riding off quickly into the desert. A mechanic tells him it is Major Sterne, a free-lance British agent who operates among the arabs. Chapter 3: Biggles Gets a Shock Biggles returns to the German aerodrome at Zabala and reports to his superior, Count von Faubourg, who is chief of German Intelligence in the sector. Now it is his turn to get a shock. Together with his chief of staff, Hauptmann Erich von Stalhein, von Faubourg begins a thorough interrogation. What was Biggles doing at Kantara inside the HQ tent of British intelligence and who was the other officer with Major Raymond! Biggles blurts out an excuse that he had wanted to test his cover and landed at Kantara to see if it could be done with impunity. There he had been asked to report to the tent as they thought he might carry a message to Heliopolis but he had told them that he was not going that way. The answer satisfies von Faubourg but Biggles can see that von Stalhein doesn't look convinced. Chapter 4: A Meeting and a Duel The next morning von Faubourg gives Biggles the assignment of locating a force of Australian cavalry which is thought to be hidden in the hills in preparation to b eing deployed at the front. Biggles takes off in a Sopwith Pup and flies to Abba Sud where Algy and Raymond are waiting. Raymond is alarmed to hear that the Germans know about the Australian reinforcements but he suggests that Biggles report that they are at Sidi Arish. They Australians are really there but were about to move out and would be away by the time the Germans manage to mount an air attack. Raymond then passes Biggles an explosive charge and wants him to try to blow up a water reservoir north of Zabala aerodrome. But now a Pfalz swoops overhead. It's Leffens' aircraft. Von Stalhein must have sent him to follow and now he has spotted the rendezvous. At all costs, Biggles must prevent Leffens from returning to base so he sets off in pursuit. After a difficult combat, Leffens being a skilled pilot, Biggles shoots down the Pfalz. He lands and sees that Leffens is dead. Nearby he notices that Leffens has dropped his signet ring, similar to the one he and others working for German intelligence were issued with and so he picks it up. Chapter 5: The New Bullet Back at Zabala, Biggles disposes of Raymond's explosive charge before taxying to the tarmac and reporting the results of his reconnaissance to von Faubourg. At the mess, the pilots tell him Leffens is missing and what's worse, he had been trying out some new bullets which had only just arrived. Outside, Biggles spots von Stalhein poking around his Sopwith Pup. He looks at it later and sees bullet holes. There had been a bullet lodge in the woodwork which von Stalhein has dug out. So now he knew Biggles had been under fire, and by the new bullets Leffens was equipped with! Worse, von Faoubourg summons Biggles and tells him the mission to locate the Australians was a ruse and a test for him. There were no real Australian cavalry to be found. Why had Biggles reported finding them at Sidi Arish? But Biggles is saved from further explanation: a photo-reconnaissance Halberstadt returns and Mayer, the squadron commander brings in some freshly developed photos showing the Australians really there! The count is delighted and rushes off, not giving von Stalhein a chance to mention the matter of the bullet. Category:Plot summaries